Fast-track the end of AI​​​DS in the EU - practical evidence-based interventions

Event

30 Jan 2017 - 31 Jan 2017

St Julians, Malta

ECDC; Maltese Presidency of the Council of the European Union

As one of the Maltese Presidency of the European Union of the Council initiatives, a technical meeting brought together leading experts on HIV prevention and control from across the EU to discuss how Europe could improve its response to HIV and achieve the targets outlined in the Sustainable Development Goals, the actions agreed at the UN High-Level meeting on HIV/AIDS and those adopted in the Global Health Sector Strategy at the World Health Assembly.

Strong leadership, late diagnoses: new ECDC reports show Europe’s response to HIV

Press release-26 May 2013

ECDC today publishes a first set of reports illustrating how countries have been responding to HIV up till 2012 based on their commitment outlined in the Dublin Declaration on Partnership to Fight HIV/AIDS in Europe and Central Asia. The reports find that, on balance, political leadership in response to HIV is rather strong in the countries of the region.

ECDC hosts technical side event to UN High Level Meeting on AIDSArchived

Event-9 Jun 2011

On 9 June, ECDC will be hosting a technical side-event to the United Nations High-Level Meeting on AIDS 2011. The event will highlight how countries and regions with differing epidemiology could improve their responses to HIV/AIDS.

Technical mission: HIV, STI and viral hepatitis in Bulgaria. 19-21 September 2016 and 14-15 November 2016

Mission report-29 May 2017

The Ministry of Health in Bulgaria invited ECDC to prepare an assessment of the current national HIV programme and to review the STI and Hepatitis surveillance system. Following discussions between ECDC and representatives of the Bulgarian national programme, it was decided to split the assessment into two separate country missions.

World AIDS Day 2017

Campaign

1 Dec 2017

ECDC

One in 2 people living with HIV are diagnosed late in the course of their infection. So late, that two out of three people with AIDS in the EU/EEA receive their diagnosis within only three months of discovering they had HIV. For World AIDS Day 2017, ECDC highlighted the problem of late diagnosis and the need for diversifying HIV testing approaches.

Within a matter of weeks, three cases of gonorrhoea that are resistant to the recommended first line antibiotic treatment have been detected in Europe and Australia. These are the first global reports of Neisseria gonorrhoeae with high-level resistance to azithromycin and ceftriaxone resistance that also show resistance to several other vital antibiotics. At a time with limited alternatives to the current dual therapy, lack of a vaccine and insufficient surveillance capacity in some regions, these cases highlight the growing threat of drug-resistance – which could lead to untreatable gonorrhoea.

Syphilis and congenital syphilis in Europe - A review of epidemiological trends (2007–2018) and options for response

Technical report-12 Jul 2019

Since 2010, syphilis notification rates in the EU/EAA have been on the increase, but in recent years this trend seems to accelerate, predominantly among men having sex with men. Similar trends have been observed in high-income countries outside the EU/EAA. While the overall trend remained relatively stable, outbreaks or clusters of syphilis cases have also been reported among heterosexual populations in the EU/EEA. In several high-income countries (e.g. USA, Japan), increases in congenital syphilis occurred in connection with increases in syphilis notifications among women.

Syphilis notifications in the EU/EEA up by 70% since 2010

News story-12 Jul 2019

The number of syphilis cases has been consistently going up across Europe since 2010, mostly affecting men who have sex with men living in urban areas. In 2017, notification rates reached an all-time high in the EU/EEA countries with more than 33 000 reported cases. An in-depth ECDC study published today describes the factors behind this increase and outlines the evidence-based options for public health control of syphilis, including case finding and management as well as educational activities.

Targeted testing is an essential element of any strategy to eliminate viral hepatitis across the countries in the European Union and European Economic Area. Some preliminary monitoring results on the response to hepatitis B and C presented around World Hepatitis Day show that diagnosing chronic infections is still a challenge in the EU/EEA.